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First Time S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

At the request of some people in the Screenshot thread, I'm going to write about my first time playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl (with the complete mod 2009) as it's happening.

Day 1:
Today was my first day in the zone. It began with me discovering that not only do I not know who I am, but that no one else seems to either. The solution then? to go on a dangerous quest to kill a man who probably does because the previous me who did know who we are must've disliked said man.

On the flipside, I met some people. they seem nice..
After listening to the Russian singing for a while I was given a quest to find a guy and retrieve a thingy-ma-jig. Which went off without a hitch thanks to some nearby stalkers who seemed happy to do all the work and get none of the loot. Not even the belongings of there fallen comrades.
After returning the thingy-ma-jig to chubbybunkerman, and looting more corpses, I was told I needed to travel further into the zone to see a man about a dog. Or steal things from a heavily guarded facility. It was one of those options..

"So how Wheelz, do you plan on stealing a dog from a heavily guarded facility?" I hear you ask. Well see, their's this tunnel I found:

But when I whisper gently in its ear, kiss its cheek, and then quietly try to enter..
It attempts to electrocute me :(

After this, I actually spent quite a while trying to work out how to get over the rail way, as the only directions I was given were "Traverse the embankment". Super unhelpful, that.

after dieing multiple times to grenades and the electricity I decided to do more looting, which lead me into the north east corner where I discovered the embankment wasn't fenced, making crossing far easier. It was hear I had my first serious run in with radiation, which killed me twice before I decided to take the mans advice and use some anti-rad to get by it.

Eventually I caught up with a man who had information regarding that dude that previous me who knew who himself was wanted dead. And after exchanging information with him I went into a near by attic to sleep. It was at the point I discovered a few things:

1) That night time is really, really dark.
2) and really, really scary, and that the flash light isn't enough to save me from deformed dogs that I can't see.
3) That night-time can be dangerous enough to kill other stalkers.
4) dead stalkers have the best loot.

After making these discoveries, I decided to sleep out the rest of the night back in the attic, where I made a fifth and final discovery:
5) sleeping without eating kills you.

After eventually sleeping through the night safely I headed on up to the garbage heaps to spend day 2.

You have trouble getting across the railway? Well, I wouldn't want to spoil the experience but I'll give you a hint. There's a few openings at a stash near a train at the west of the patrol, albeit an irradiated one.

Hah, in all my previous playthroughs, I'd never thought to cross the hill on the other side (anti-rads always seemed too expensive at the beginning, anyway). I love that it's still possible to discover things years later.

And yes, you might have got some loot by letting the other Stalkers do the work at the bandit camp, but... well, let's just say fortune sometimes favours the bold.

I'm actually in the middle of a game currently (this time, to the end!), a ways ahead of where you are... been meaning to post a wee diary as well. Maybe I'll do that, though elsewhere of course, so's not to crowd you (and prevent spoilers).

Day 2. A Countinued STALKER adventure.

Day 2:
The second day began with a hiss and a roar, both of which scared the bejesus out of me and made me want stay as far away from the Garbage heap as possible. Alas, I could not. So-and-so told me that whats-his-face is in the middle of it, and he's the guy I need to see about directions to kill the guy I aparently don't like.

So on I went, sticking to the road, ahead I spotted a group of friendly looking stalkers.

"Hey you guys look cool, can I hang with youse? promise I won't loot any of your belongings! I know I only look like a rookie, but I'm telling you, I can loot like a veteren."

After eventually avenging my own death, as well as that of the poor stalker who had to get shot in the head everytime I restarted that battle, I was asked to help defend a pile of broken cars from more bandits. Bandits, who I now loathe.

"Why yes sir, I will help you destoy all of those bastard bandits." "Good! Now, I'm going to go and get myself shot in the face so you have to restart this battle as well. And because you're lazy with your saves, you can redo the last one for good measure."
"Thank you sir, that's all the reward I need." Said nobody.
(Pictured: stalker guy immediately prior to getting himself shot in the face.)

The nice thing about big battles is all of the loot you get, and it was from here that I picked up an ak74su, I'd already managed to grab a shotgun off of earlier bandits, and the guards at the zone border had been kind enough to give me the mp-whatevers. So at this point, my bag looked like:

It was shortly after this battle that I discovered that the crazy high levels of radiation wern't a one-off with the train tracks, and that if I wanted to adventure around here I was going to need to keep a high amount of antirads and vodka on me, which is easier said than done. so off I went trying to kill all of the bandits that were even vaguely in my way, whilst staying clear of anything that was even slightly radio-active.

Eventually I made it to the hanger where thingymajigwhatshisface was residing, and after talking to him I was given directions to another man who may or may not know where the guy-I-must-kill is, and who was hiding somewhere near that dog that needed rescuing. Rather than go see him, I spent the rest of the day looting, and after completing a 3rd side quest, decided it was time to return to chubbybunkerman to recieve the rewards.
It was a quick run back to the starting town, as I only stopped to clear the annoying bandit/army dudes that were held up under the bridge. However, it was around here I learnt the limits of my carry weight -anything equal to or greater than 70kgs makes me unable to move; so I had to drop a bunch of useless junk (mostly food and guns) so I could make it to the trader.

After this I returned to the garbage heap, stopping only for a picture of the loft I slept in the first night:

By the time I got back to the hanger it was getting dark, and because I'm still a giant wuss, I decided that I would cuddle up and go to sleep with the stalkers in the hanger.

We should have a Let's Play section of the forums, similar to the RPG Codex Playground, with a far larger limit on the amount of pictures embedded in one post. Good job on this, STALKER is one of the few games that I enjoy watching other people play.

you're wearing a bandit jacket? dude, try searching the houses back in the loner camp. the roofs, to be exact and break some crates. you'll get some better gear than that. better yet, break every crate you can find there.

you're wearing a bandit jacket? dude, try searching the houses back in the loner camp. the roofs, to be exact and break some crates. you'll get some better gear than that. better yet, break every crate you can find there.

I'm not sure if I should ask more about this. I don't want to break the balance of the game, and to be honest, I'm too lazy to go back to the starting area a third time unless the main quest is going to take me there anyway. and Well, I haven't worked out how to break boxes yet, didn't even know you could.

and Thanks ZamFear for the save advice, I'll make sure to keep a couple extra saves handy.

Since you are running complete mod, remember that if you press "S" in the pause screen, you automatically create a unique savegame.

So if you want to save, press ESC+S. It makes saving very easy (as fast as quicksave), and having multiple saves is a much more reliable way of saving then relying on that single quicksave.

I'm not sure if I should ask more about this. I don't want to break the balance of the game, and to be honest, I'm too lazy to go back to the starting area a third time unless the main quest is going to take me there anyway. and Well, I haven't worked out how to break boxes yet, didn't even know you could.

The same way you open wooden boxes in any fps game: Apply melee weapon. Rightclicking gives you a stronger punch with it (à la the CS knife).

I'm not sure if I should ask more about this. I don't want to break the balance of the game, and to be honest, I'm too lazy to go back to the starting area a third time unless the main quest is going to take me there anyway. and Well, I haven't worked out how to break boxes yet, didn't even know you could.

and Thanks ZamFear for the save advice, I'll make sure to keep a couple extra saves handy.

It's nothing much really and you'll get a much better suit for free later if you look around. Speaking of which, straying around the zone after you reach the Bar is always a good idea. But play at your own pace. After all, it's your first time